Bonum Certa Men Certa

When Blogs Become Marketing and Benchmarks Become Product Promotions

Video download link | md5sum 7981b8c10b1b12c9687f52aae5a48708 AMD and Phoronix Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Having boasted about hardware worth as much as a house (likely in breach of FTC regulations, not just the most fundamental ethical guidelines), apparently coming from AMD, Phoronix discredited itself or tarnished its image as a trusted, objective source; now it seems to be deleting the image of this epic (EPYC) gift, though only after some backlash

Techrights has linked to Phoronix literally tens of thousands of times. So has Tux Machines, which according to Alexa (the traffic analysis site) is a leading source of inbound traffic for Phoronix (highest except Phoronix itself). I've spent years defending Phoronix from its critics, linking to the site in Social Control Media as an act of solidarity. I routinely used it as a source so it's very frustrating to see what it became [1, 2]. It's part of an ongoing trend. Presenting itself as hard-working and impoverished 'underdog', the site has crossed over to the "dark side" and is shamelessly sharing photographs of gifts. Not a gift like a laptop or a processor but something about 1,000 times more expensive. There's no valid explanation and none has been given.



To make matters worse, it now looks like parts of the forum are being removed (like the image posted there; I show this in the video above and I've verified again since) and no explanation is being given. Half a day ago I wrote (as a 15-year forum member): "What is going on here? Michael, those chips cost a fortune [sic] and are not needed in these quantities for the purpose of testing/comparing. Who sent these? Please clarify."

Intel CoreIt's perfectly possible that AMD isn't alone; AMD is one that we know about. The image on the left was posted this year as well. It is difficult to know, however, what is inside that cabinet (or the quantity). It's not entirely unreasonable to ship something for review, but how many?

Seeing that an administrator saw and approved my post, I expected an imminent response but received none. So I followed up with: "I've linked to Phoronix literally tens of thousands of times and defended it a lot from its critics. I need to see the AMD contract by which this transaction was done, dated too (to avoid it being revised in a face-saving exercise)."

Half a day has passed and no reply was given. I said upfront: "I'll give another few hours for response, seeing my posts did get approved, so they're being read. I'll draw my own conclusions if no response is posted soon."

Phoronix is aware and has posted 4 or 5 articles since (as of the time of writing), so clearly my messages were seen. As the image from the forums has been removed I'm reproducing one of several screenshots below. The video above says a lot more and today's IRC logs will add context.

Phoronix thread #1



Phoronix thread #2



Phoronix thread #3

Recent Techrights' Posts

Slop's Achilles Heel: It Increases the Workload, Not Just Costs
Set aside its inability to scale well
Improving techrights.org
Technical debt (like 17 years with WordPress) is something that's better to address early, not later
Laos Leaving GAFAM Behind, Gradually
Yesterday evening it was measured at 10% for GNU/Linux at one point
China Says Goodbye to Microsoft
It is hardly surprising that Windows is shedding off userbase all around the world
 
Links 19/08/2026: Timothy James King (AmigaDOS) Dies, GitHub Goes Offline, Finland Wants to Shun Social Control Media
Links for the day
Mass Layoffs at Dropbox, Blame the Debt, Not Slop Hype
The debt of Dropbox Inc., which isn't an imaginary (estimated) thing, is over 4 billion dollars
Microsoft is 'Angel of Death' to Developers (Even Its Own), 'Voluntary' Layoffs Happening Again
From what we are hearing and reading, there are 'voluntary' layoffs again
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 18, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Gemini Links 19/08/2026: Shirts, Handwriting, and Fights in Geminispace
Links for the day
They Were Wrong All Along
Two women combined won't deliver a healthy baby in just 4.5 months
A "Tech Journalist" Would Not Cover Vote on LLMs as a Sex Issue
For a moment there you have to pause and wonder, is this a "Tech Journalist" or the Daily Stormer?
20,000 by Year's End
The "New Techrights" will have 20,000 pages by year's end
Last Night GNU/Linux Measured at 9% in Africa
Nighttimes in Africa are times when GNU/Linux usage on desktop/laptop devices typically surges, based on Clownflare [...] It changes in favour of GNU/Linux
Gemini Links 18/08/2026: Google Bait and Switch (Getting College People 'Hooked' on 'Cheap' Storage, Then Backups Gone), a "Question of E-mail"
Links for the day
Bluesky is in Trouble
Bluesky is a private company (unlike Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. in Toronto, that one runs a pyramid scheme!), so it's hard to know for sure just how much money it is losing
Links 18/08/2026: US Abandons South Korea, New Legal Disputes Over Slop Plagiarism in the Music Scene
Links for the day
Linux Losing Interest in Users' Freedom, Pursues DRM Instead
"Linux" is (or was, as GNU/Linux) meant to empower - not artificially restrict - the users
GNU/Linux in Ecuador and Colombia: Growing, Still Below International Average
locals turn away from Windows and try GNU/Linux instead
IBM is Dead or Dying. Now It Asks Workers to 'Resign' Voluntarily.
To save face, to pretend no layoffs are happening (as it might alarm shareholders) [...] We keep hearing more and more stories like that
Links 18/08/2026: Sergey Brin Controlling State Policies, "Dario Amodei's (Anthropic) Wife Is Closely Linked to Jeffrey Epstein"
Links for the day
SBS News Interviews Daniel Pocock
The locals say this PR stunt (by the bigot, Farage) was a waste of money
Clownflare Sees One in 7 Web Requests in Libya Originating From GNU/Linux
GNU/Linux has taken a (foot)hold there
Openwashing and Manifestos Composed in Private by Dictators With Deliberately Addictive (and Subsidised, Bundled) 'Tech'
It's long, so make a cuppa first
SLAPP Censorship - Part 153 Out of 200: Decades of Debt, Weaponising Borrowed Money to Try to Put Their Critics in Debt
they've always had a financial report by now
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 17, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, August 17, 2026
Gemini Links 18/08/2026: Solar Power, Kipple and Impermanence, Catastrophe Ethics
Links for the day
Evri (HermesUK) is Now Run by Bots and Hallucinating Scammers
Years ago they virtually removed support and tried chatbots instead
Less Technology, More Life
Technology is being associated (sometimes rightly) with physical and mental problems
Google Search Has Gotten Worse (a Lot Worse)
getting worse
Birthday in 80 Days
we'll start decorating and party online with our community
Loans and Massive Debt at Microsoft, This Won't End Well.
Microsoft running out of money to pay salaries (to the point of paying people for 'voluntary' layoffs) is a positive sign?
Gemini Links 17/08/2026: Life in Plain Text, Mimicking KARL, Release of Jugulans, Avoiding Slop
Links for the day
Clown Storage Without Backups
Setting up several reliable copies of the data, plus several off-site backups (this data is nowhere as sensitive as medical data), should only cost a few grand
FreeCAD is Becoming Slop-ware, Use LibreCAD Instead
It has regular releases and "Qt5 is mandatory" now [...] they at least audit what they add
Cuba and Venezuela High in Adoption of GNU/Linux
some of the "communist" nations
Links 17/08/2026: Myanmar’s Cholera Outbreak, China Sends Commercial Vessels Through Arctic
Links for the day
GAFAM Loyalty Has Come to an End, Morale Low, People Whose Future is Uncertain Choose to Become "Lifers"
morale is low and there's no loyalty anymore
SLAPP Censorship - Part 152 Out of 200: Injunctions Do Not Cover Criticism, They Have Scope
self-incriminating communications
Clownflare Sees About Quarter of Web Requests in Ireland Coming From GNU/Linux
Well, in Ireland it seems like many people adopted GNU/Linux
Clownflare: In Australia and New Zealand GNU/Linux Peaks at Over 10% During Working Hours
That right there is interesting in its own right
Slowing Down by Intention
At the moment we have 6 or 7 ongoing series
Gemini Links 17/08/2026: Chamboree, Partial Solar Eclipse, Lady Macbeth
Links for the day
Links 17/08/2026: "Bluesky Is Down Again!" and "Anti-Social Media"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 16, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, August 16, 2026